John W. Purifoy

In 1860 he was a prosperous 35 year old farmer and owner of 13 slaves at Snow Hill in Wilcox County, AL. He enlisted in Allenton, AL on 12 February 1861 for 12 months as a Private in the Wilcox True Blues - later Company K (later B) of the First Alabama Infantry and was appointed Sergeant Major of the regiment on 17 August 1861. He probably served his term in garrison at Pensacola, FL.

On 29 March 1862, also his wedding day, he enrolled again at Snow Hill and was elected and commissioned the original Captain of the Cedar Creek Guards - Company C, 44th Alabama Infantry.

He was "dangerously" wounded by a gunshot to his chest and through his right lung and right arm in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862 and captured there. Acting assistant Surgeon Tom Lee afterward wrote:

Wounded: Capt. Purifoy through the breast, supposed to be mortal — did not see him as he remained all night and the next day on the battle field and no one allowed to go there — He succeeded in getting across the river and last any of us have seen or heard of him he was at a private house in Sheppardtown on the Va. Side of the river — our pickets being between us and him none of us can go to see after him.

He was captured, probably in Shepherdstown, paroled on 30 September, and sent to Aiken's Landing, VA for exchange on 8 November. He was furloughed home on 15 November and resigned his commission due to disability on 2 February 1863.

By 1870 and to at least 1880 he was again a farmer at Snow Hill, AL.

His service from the State of Alabama1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 online from fold3. He's also on a Sharpsburg casualty list in the Richmond (VA) Enquirer of 17 October 1862. The quote above from a letter he wrote Dr William Gully in Wilcox County from Winchester, VA on 12 October 1862; transcribed online by Sharman Burson Ramsey. Personal details from family genealogists and the population and slave schedules of the US Census of 1860 and population schedules of the US Census of 1870 & 1880. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Nancy Warren Carter (1826-1910) in March 1862 and they had 3 children.

c. 1824; Hancock County, GA

12/02/1897; Wilcox County, AL; burial in Old Snow Hill Cemetery, Snow Hill, AL